Ekiti needs new strategy to provide water provision’

A new strategy must be adopted to provide potable water for residents of Ekiti State.

This was the view of experts who spoke at a two-day International Seminar on water tagged ‘Water-Tech 2014.’

Speaking at the seminar, National President of Association of Waterwell Drilling Rig Owners and Practitioners, Mr. Michael Ale, said the old method of laying pipes to connect different communities when rocky hills dot the state’s landscape cannot achieve the desired results.

Ale said the solution to the problem is by sinking boreholes for each community which would maintain the facilities, saying, “The geological feature of Ekiti is one of the reasons why the state doesn’t have water.”

He tasked the Federal and State Government on the need to increase access to portable water by brokering partnerships with competent local and foreign experts.

While acknowledging the prevalence of water scarcity in the country, Ale questioned the figures recently released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, which stated that 54 per cent of Nigerians had access to water.

He noted, “I have not been able to verify the statistics. But access is not determined by the number of boreholes drilled. If a borehole was drilled to serve 20,000 people, did you go back to check if that borehole is serving the people? On paper it is right, but in reality it is not. If not for pure water factories, government would have been in big trouble.”